Chapter Nineteen
Halle usually liked the first day of school. Seeing all the kids’ faces, some enthusiastic and others not quite so excited, typically brought a smile to her face. The rush of helping the teachers get settled and calming the nerves of the kids new to middle school all brought her a sense of accomplishment. She felt in control in the middle of the chaos.
She was not enjoying this first day of school. Nothing went as planned. Everything was out of order. Despite emailing the parents constantly about the change in the schedule, there were kids who showed up either super early or very late. Parents blamed her because they didn’t read the fifty-eleven emails, texts and phone calls she sent about the changes. The power went out right after the homeroom bell rang and took everything offline for nearly forty minutes. Teachers struggled to keep kids excited about being back in school under control, while the district’s IT staff tried to get everything back online. Once the systems were back up and running, a pipe burst in the lunchroom, meaning the cafeteria staff couldn’t make lunch for everyone, and they’d had to rush in food to feed the rest of the kids. She’d prayed for the day to just end and get a do-over tomorrow, but a fender bender in the car rider line turned into an altercation between parents that she had to help defuse.
By the time she got away from the school and headed to pick up Shania from football practice, she wanted to cry. And Halle wasn’t a crier. Crying solved nothing. She learned that after crying uncontrollably after the loss of her parents. She’d cried, but they hadn’t come back, and that hadn’t made figuring out life without them any easier. So instead of crying she pushed aside the frustration and sat in her car, making a list of all the things to do tonight when she got home to make sure things went better tomorrow morning.
She was busy scribbling when someone knocked on the passenger-side window. Halle startled at the interruption and looked up from the pen and pad in her hand. Shania waved; Quinton stood behind her. Halle’s heart jumped into her throat. She’d tried not to think about what Quinton said. Tried not to picture him as the man in her life and just view him as Shania’s father. It didn’t help that every time she saw the man he looked better than chocolate ice cream in a freshly baked waffle cone covered in sprinkles and syrup on a hot summer day.
Halle licked her lips as she quickly got out of the car and tried to control her facial features. “You ready?”
Shania frowned. “Bad day?”
“No, it was a good day,” Halle lied.
Shania tilted her head to the side. “You’re making a list. Whenever you’re upset you make a list.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. Your way of getting the world to do what you want it to do.”
Halle crossed her arms and looked from Shania to Quinton. “What’s going on? Did something happen at practice?”
Quinton shook his head. “No, I was talking to Shania after practice and just walked with her over to the car. How did things go today? I heard about the power outage at the middle school.”
Of course he had. News traveled fast in Peachtree Cove. “That was the least of our worries,” Halle said. “But we got through. Turns out squirrels in the ceiling got to some wires. The IT team created a work-around and they’re getting in a contractor to work on the lines.”
“Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. Let me know if you need anything.”
He wore those aviator sunglasses he seemed to favor. She hated that she couldn’t see his eyes but could feel his stare from behind the lenses. She felt open to his scrutiny and didn’t like it.
“I’m good,” she said in a tight voice. “Let’s go, Shania. I’ve got a lot to do to prepare for tomorrow, so we’ll go eat at the Fresh Place Inn. I’ve already emailed Tracey and she says it’s cool. Shirley made enough for us to have seconds.”
Shania’s face lit up. “Sounds good. I’ve got some homework that I need to do, even though it’s the first day of school.”
“Then we’ll get the food to go and head home. Quinton, we’ll see you this weekend?”
He nodded. “You will.”
She nodded. “Until then.” She looked away and got into the car. Shania talked to him for a few seconds before getting in the backseat of the car.
“Are you mad at Coach Q?” Shania asked as she put on her seat belt.
Halle didn’t look at Quinton as she drove away. “No, why would I be mad at him? I just had a long day and we’ve got a lot of stuff to do. School is back in session, and we’ll be busy.”
“I know, but I think he wanted to talk to you about something.”
She glanced at Shania. “About what?”
“I don’t know. You know he doesn’t usually walk me to your car to keep people from making things weird.”
“Are the kids on the team making things weird still? Did anyone say anything else?”
Shania sat back in the seat. Her fingers tugged on her shorts. “There were some whispers at school today, but nothing too bad.”
Halle placed her hand over Shania’s. “I’m sorry. Who said anything? You know you can go to the principal.”
“I know, but there’s no need. No one said anything to me. Besides, there’s some girl drama happening online that is more interesting than me right now.”
“What type of girl drama?” Halle asked, concerned. She knew how quickly online disputes could spill over into a fight at the school.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t involve me and I’m staying out of it. I keep to my cousins and stay out of the drama. So, no need to worry.”
“Still, if you hear anything let me know.”
Halle would call Jeremiah and give him a heads-up. No need to have him blindsided if anything did blow up at his school. They went by the Fresh Place Inn. Tracey was busy getting a new tenant set up in their room, so she grabbed the food from Shirley and headed home. They ate dinner and then Shania showered and went to her room to do homework. Halle spread out her paperwork on the kitchen table and went over the list of things she needed to prepare before the next morning. The people to call and the maintenance items to follow up on. She’d hoped the district could cover the cost of repairs. Otherwise, the school’s maintenance budget would go over.
Her cell phone rang around eight that night. Quinton’s number. Frowning, she answered. “Is everything okay?”
“It is, but I wanted to run something by you. You got a second?”
She looked at the papers on the table, but suddenly the issues didn’t seem as important. Quinton didn’t call her unless it was important. “I do.”
“I’m in the neighborhood. Can I stop by?”
Halle glanced around the room. She’d changed and was in her after-work, no-bra outfit. A pair of pajama pants that might have a hole in the crotch and an old T-shirt. “Um...give me about ten minutes or so.”
“That’s fine. See you in a bit.”
Halle hurried to her room and put on a sports bra. She peeped in on Shania, but her daughter was already in the bed, out like a light. Between first day of school and football practice she wasn’t surprised to find her already knocked out.
She went on the porch to wait for Quinton. She didn’t want the doorbell to wake up Shania. Quinton’s truck pulled into her driveway soon after she went out. He got out of the car and walked toward her. The shades from earlier were gone but his expression still wasn’t easily readable. He looked good in the basketball shorts and sports shirt that clung to his shoulders.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” He held out a bag. “I brought these for you.”
She looked at the bag from the Sweet Treats bakery. “What is it?”
“Open it up and see.”
She took the bag and checked inside. Her mouth watered. “A lemon blueberry cupcake!”
“The last one they had. I figured you could use it after your day. I went by the grocery store after practice and heard about the issue with lunch and the car rider fight. You had a rough day.”
“The life of a principal. I’m going to eat this now.”
“Go ahead.”
She sat on the stoop and Quinton sat beside her. She pulled out the cupcake and took a bite. The sweetness burst on her taste buds, and she groaned. “This is so good.”
“Good.” He sounded satisfied.
Halle glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “Did you really come here just to bring me a cupcake?”
“No, I do need to talk to you.”
So Shania had been right. “What’s going on?”
“It’s about my parents. They’re coming to visit me next weekend. They want to meet Shania.”
The cupcake nearly stuck in Halle’s throat. “Your parents? You’ve got parents?”
Quinton laughed. “Most people have someone who brought them into the world.”
“I’m sorry, I know that. It’s just, I never really thought about your parents.” Or his family. She’d just thought about getting to know him and making him a part of her life. She hadn’t considered what it would be like to include the rest of his family.
“I know. I asked them for more time, but they’re excited.” He sounded apologetic. “They’ve always wanted a grandchild. My sister isn’t having any kids so they’re looking at me.”
“They aren’t upset about Shania?”
He shook his head. “Nah, they’re upset that I donated in college, but they aren’t upset that she’s here.”
“I guess I can understand that.”
He sighed and stretched his legs out in front of him. “The money I got helped them keep the apartment. I didn’t have a lot growing up. My parents worked, but it wasn’t enough to really make ends meet. Then they had to legally separate because my dad’s income kept my mom from getting assistance. They said her income combined with his pushed them out of the assistance program.”
Halle put the rest of the cupcake in the bag. Her stomach soured by the reality she saw play out in her school each year. “I hate that. I see it with so many kids. Their parents are barely making it and if you do better you lose assistance. Without the assistance you can barely get by.”
He nodded. “Getting out and getting a decent job was my only goal. I knew football could make me a lot, but it’s no guarantee. Anything can derail a career. So, I also majored in education. Schools always need teachers.”
“Were you the star of the team?” She’d assumed he’d been one of those great kids destined to play professionally. Catered to and obstacles blocked so that he could succeed on the field.
He shook his head. “Hardly. I grew up in a decent enough school district. Not rich, but fancy enough that the football team was run by boosters who could donate and get their kids to play. My parents weren’t part of that. I had to fight just to get noticed or taken seriously. When I proved I could make plays, they didn’t have a reason to keep me off the team.”
“Then you got a scholarship for college?”
“Nope.”
“Really?”
“I was injured my senior year. I lost the scholarship I was offered. I had to be a walk-on at another school.”
“Injured how?”
His body tensed. “Accident with some kids at school. It was bad enough to ruin my season, but not bad enough to keep me from playing. Thankfully, I recovered and was able to walk on at Clark Atlanta. But paying for school while trying to prove I deserved a scholarship was tough. So, I did what I could to make extra money. I qualified for work study, so that helped. I gave a lot of blood. I knew some guys on the team donated sperm. There was a doctor affiliated with the team who worked at the donor place. He convinced some players that there were people who’d pay extra to have ‘prime quality sperm.’ His words. I held off, but when my family was about to get kicked out of the apartment, I did it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I don’t regret what I did. Even though I didn’t do it again. You got Shania and here we are.”
“With your parents wanting to meet her.” Everything about Quinton was different from what she’d imagined. He wasn’t just kind, considerate and straightforward, he was also a hard worker. She liked him. Something she hadn’t expected when she’d first met him, but was glad to be proven wrong about.
“Do you have a problem with them meeting her?”
Halle considered it and shook her head. “No. Not really. My mom died when I was in high school. Dad my junior year of college. Losing them is the reason why I wanted to have Shania. I felt so alone and I wanted someone I could love who would also love me. Having Shania alone was hard, but I made it work. It also means I haven’t had to think about parents in a long time.”
“You never thought about having in-laws?”
She glanced at him. “They aren’t my in-laws.”
He grinned and her stomach flipped. “Not right now.”
Her eyes widened. “Don’t even play.”
He reached out and wiped the corner of her mouth. “I’m just talking. You’ve got icing on your lips.”
His fingers lingered on her lips. His eyes, dark and alluring, stared back at hers. The background sounds in the neighborhood faded away. Her breath stuck in her chest.
“We can’t.”
“I want to kiss you. I thought about kissing you before I knew Shania was my daughter. Maybe we shouldn’t, but we damn sure can give it a try.” He brought his finger to his lips and licked the icing off his finger. “Can I kiss you?”
She couldn’t for the life of her think of a reason why not. She nodded. Quinton leaned forward and his lips pressed against hers. His kiss was perfect. His lips firm but gentle as they played against hers. He gently sucked on her lower lip and fire spread through her. It invaded her bloodstream, her lungs, her heart. She leaned in closer to him, wanting to get more. Quinton met her intensity with his own. One hand cupped the back of her head; the other pressed into her thigh.
She was lost in the sensation. She wanted more. Wished that she could take him in the house and feel the heat of his skin against hers. His hand squeezed her thigh before sliding up to her side, then slowly up to cup the side of her breast. She pushed her chest forward and his thumb brushed across her hardened nipple.
Halle gasped and his tongue slid past her parted lips. She was one minute away from forgetting all the things she said about not getting together with him. His thumb circled her nipple. Scratch that: she was two seconds away.
Quinton slowly pulled back. His eyes were bright with desire and his breathing just as choppy as hers. “I didn’t mean to go so far.”
“Neither did I.” Without his intoxicating kisses she could think clearly. “We shouldn’t do this here.”
He nodded. “I’ll go.” He pulled back.
“Quinton, we—”
“I know. There’s a lot to work out before we do this.” He leaned in and kissed her softly. “I’m still waiting for you to say the time is right.” He pulled back and stood.
Halle’s eyes dropped to the bulge in the front of his shorts. She pressed her thighs together and desire blossomed even more raw and potent. Quinton adjusted his shorts, but the move didn’t help.
“I’ll call you about next weekend.”
The reminder cooled the arousal in her body. His parents. Their complicated situation. Cooled but didn’t douse. “I’ll wait to hear from you.”
He nodded, stared at her for several tense seconds. Would he kiss her again? He blinked then turned and went back to his car. Halle sat there after he pulled away. She reached into the bag and pulled out the rest of the lemon blueberry cupcake. She took a bite, enjoyed the sweetness and smiled.